Multi-frequency antenna

ABSTRACT

A dielectric carrier is disposed on a substrate and formed with a recess. A first antenna element is provided on at least one face of the carrier and electrically connected to the substrate. A second antenna element is provided as a ceramic antenna and disposed in the recess. A first dielectric layer is provided between the first antenna element and the second antenna element. A second dielectric layer is provided between the substrate and the second antenna element. The recess is formed at a position which is sufficiently away from a power supply point to the first antenna element and a point at which a potential of the first antenna element has a maximum value.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an antenna for a mobile communicationsterminal, and more particularly, to a multi-frequency antenna capable ofcommunicating signals having a plurality of frequencies: used for mobilephones and data communications, etc.

In recent years, the mobile communication has made a rapid progress.Especially, the mobile phones have significantly come into widespreaduse, and reduction in size and weight have been achieved. In case of themobile phone, a dual band is becoming a main stream in respective areasof the world, for example, PDC (Personal Digital Cellular) 800 MHz bandand PDC 1.5 GHz band in Japan, GSM (Global System for MobileCommunications) 900 MHz band and GSM 1.8 GHz band in Europe, and AMPS(Advanced Mobile Phone Service) 800 MHz band and PCS (PersonalCommunication Services) 1.9 GHz band in North America. In addition,communication systems such as GPS (Global Positioning System) of 1.5 GHzband, Bluetooth of 2.4 GHz band, IMT (International MobileTelecommunication) 2000 of 2 GHz band are becoming widespread. Under thecircumstances, in order to conduct these mobile phones and communicationsystems in a single apparatus for the mobile communications, antennasadapted to respective frequency bands need to be provided in the singleapparatus.

FIG. 8 shows a first related-art in which an apparatus incorporates anantenna for the dual band of AMPS/PCS for the mobile phone and anantenna for the GPS. Such a configuration is disclosed in InternationalPatent Publication No. WO 02/89249.

A carrier 12 made of dielectric substance is disposed on a substrate 10,and a first antenna element 14 for the dual band of AMPS/PCS made ofsheet metal is disposed on an upper face of this carrier 12. Further, asecond antenna element 16 for the GPS made of sheet metal is disposed ona side face of the carrier 12. Numerals 14 a and 14 b designate a powersupply terminal and a grounding terminal of the first antenna element14, respectively. Numerals 16 a and 16 b designate a power supplyterminal and a grounding terminal of the second antenna element 16,respectively.

FIG. 9 shows a second related-art apparatus incorporating an antenna forthe dual band for the mobile phone and an antenna for the GPS. Theelements similar to those in the first related-art will be designated bythe same reference numerals, and repetitive explanations will beomitted.

In this example, a carrier 12 which is smaller than the carrier shown inFIG. 8 is disposed on a substrate 10, and a first antenna element 14 forthe dual band made of sheet metal is disposed on an upper face of thecarrier 12. Further, a second antenna element 16 for the GPS made ofsheet metal or conductive foil is disposed on the substrate 10 near thecarrier 12, along two side faces of the carrier 12.

FIG. 10 shows a third related-art apparatus incorporating an antenna forthe dual band for the mobile phone and an antenna for the GPS. Theelements similar to those in the first related-art will be designated bythe same reference numerals, and repetitive explanations will beomitted.

In this example, a carrier 12 which is smaller than the carrier shown inFIG. 8 is disposed on a substrate 10, and a first antenna element 14 forthe dual band made of sheet metal is disposed on an upper face of thecarrier 12. Further, a ceramic antenna 18 for the GPS is disposed on thesubstrate 10 near the carrier 12.

In the first related-art shown in FIG. 8, high gain can be obtained,because the structure is simple and the first antenna element 14 has alarge area. However, the largest point of electric voltage of the secondantenna element 16 is located close to the first antenna element 14, andalso, the largest point of electric voltage of the first antenna element14 is located close to the second antenna element 16. For this reason,interference occurs between them, which will make isolation worse.Because of the worse isolation, there has been such disadvantage thatthe gain and the voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) may be decreased. Inview of the above, it has been considered that the signals to bereceived by the first and second antenna elements 14, 16 should beseparated by a filter. However, this leads to a problem that an area formounting the filter and cost for components are required.

In the second related-art shown in FIG. 9, the first and second antennaelements 14, 16 can be disposed relatively spaced from each other, andthe isolation can be improved, enabling the gain and VSWR to be enhancedin this respect. However, the substrate 10 to be incorporated in themobile phone or the like has a limited size, and so, in order to providethe second antenna element 16 on the substrate 10, the area of the firstelement 14 must be made smaller than that in the first related-art shownin FIG. 8. Consequently, the gain will be inevitably decreased, becausethe area of the first antenna element 14 has been made smaller.

In the third related-art shown in FIG. 10, the first antenna element 14and the ceramic antenna 18 must be sufficiently spaced from each otherin order to eliminate interference between them, and for this reason,the area of the first antenna element 14 will be made smaller, resultingin decrease of the gain. Moreover, because the ceramic antenna 18 has ahigh Q value, even a slight deviation of resonant frequency of theceramic antenna 18 from the frequency of the GPS signal which is beingreceived will cause a remarkable drop of the gain. Further, because theresonant frequency of the ceramic antenna 18 will be largely affected bymetallic conductors in surrounding areas, it is necessary to check theresonant frequency of the ceramic antenna 18, in a state where othercircuit components in addition to the first antenna element 14 and theceramic antenna 18 have been mounted on the substrate 10. This will be adisadvantage when a trouble has happened. Still further, in case where aterminal of the ceramic antenna 18 is fixed by soldering to theconductive foil on the substrate 10 and electrically connected thereto,there is an anxiety that the soldered foil may be removed from thesubstrate 10 with vibrations or shocks, and reliability will be lost inboth electrical and mechanical features.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a multi-frequencyantenna which can attain better isolation between respective elements byeliminating relative interferences, and can obtain excellent gain andVSWR.

In order to achieve the above object, according to the invention, thereis provided an antenna, comprising:

a substrate;

a dielectric carrier, disposed on the substrate and formed with arecess;

a first antenna element, provided on at least one face of the carrierand electrically connected to the substrate;

a second antenna element, provided as a ceramic antenna and disposed inthe recess;

a first dielectric layer, provided between the first antenna element andthe second antenna element; and

a second dielectric layer, provided between the substrate and the secondantenna element,

wherein the recess is formed at a position which is sufficiently awayfrom a power supply point to the first antenna element and a point atwhich a potential of the first antenna element has a maximum value.

With this configuration, since the second antenna element is disposed inthe recess formed in the carrier, the first antenna element can beprovided making use of a size of the substrate to the largest extent,thereby to obtain a large area. As a result, the gain will be increased.Moreover, since the position of the recess is arranged as described theabove, an excellent isolation can be obtained without relativeinterference between the first and second antenna elements. Further,since the dielectric layers are arranged as described the above, it ispossible to decrease the Q value of the ceramic antenna therebyenlarging the band width of the ceramic antenna. Therefore, even thoughthe resonant frequency of the ceramic antenna deviates from the signalto be received, a significant drop of the gain can be avoided.

Preferably, at least one of the first dielectric layer and the seconddielectric layer is provided as an air layer.

In this case, it is easy to appropriately regulate the Q value of theceramic antenna, by adequately setting thicknesses of the air layer.

Preferably, the second antenna element is electrically connected to thesubstrate by way of a spring connector.

In this case, the electrical connection between the ceramic antenna andthe substrate will not be broken with vibrations or shocks.

Preferably, a dielectric holder disposed between the recess and thesubstrate so as to clamp the second antenna element together with thecarrier.

In this case, it is possible to effectively conduct tests or the like ofantenna characteristics of the first and second antenna elements, priorto assembling them to the substrate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above objects and advantages of the present invention will becomemore apparent by describing in detail preferred exemplary embodimentsthereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1A is top view of a multi-frequency antenna according to oneembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 1B is a front view of the antenna of the invention;

FIG. 1C is a side view of the antenna of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a disassembled state of anessential portion of the antenna of the invention;

FIG. 3A is a perspective view showing a disassembled state of a ceramicantenna incorporated in the antenna of the invention;

FIG. 3B is a perspective view showing an assembled state of the ceramicantenna;

FIG. 4 is a graph showing a VSWR characteristics of a first antennaelement in the antenna of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a graph showing a VSWR characteristics of the ceramic antenna;

FIG. 6 is a graph showing an isolation characteristics between the firstantenna element and the ceramic antenna;

FIG. 7A is a graph showing a directivity characteristics of the firstantenna element and the ceramic antenna;

FIG. 7B is a side view of the antenna for understanding the graph ofFIG. 7A;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a first related-art antenna;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a second related-art antenna; and

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a third related-art antenna.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to theaccompanying drawings. The elements similar to those in the related-artconfigurations will be designated by the same reference numerals, andrepetitive explanations will be omitted.

A substrate 10 (e.g., having a size of 104 mm×40 mm) shown in FIG. 1 isconfigured to be incorporated in a mobile phone. A carrier 12 made of adielectric substance (e.g., having a dielectric constant of 3.5) isdisposed on one surface of the substrate 10. A first antenna element 14similar to that shown in FIG. 8 is disposed on an upper face of thiscarrier 12. In this embodiment, a ceramic antenna 18 is disposed in arecess 12 a which is formed on a side face of the carrier 12 at aposition which is sufficiently away from a power supply part and thelargest voltage point of the first antenna element 14. In this case, thelargest voltage point of the first antenna element 14 is located at atip end of the element having a long electric path length where a lowfrequency band (AMPS) resonates and at a tip end of the element having ashort electric path length where a high frequency band (PCS) resonates.The power supply part of the first antenna element 14 is a part where apower supply terminal 14 a composed of a spring connector is provided(see FIG. 1C), and this part is the largest point of electric current. Agrounding terminal 14 b is also composed of a spring connector. In thisembodiment, by arranging the ceramic antenna 18 apart from either of thelargest voltage point and the largest current point of the first antennaelement 14 as remote as possible, the relative interference can bereduced to the least.

As shown in FIG. 2, the recess 12 a of the carrier 12 is formed withstepped portion 12 b for supporting upper corner portions of the ceramicantenna 18. On the other hand, a holder 20 formed of resin is formedwith stepped portions 20 a for supporting lower corner portions of theceramic antenna 18, so as to be opposed to the stepped portions 12 b ofthe carrier 12. The holder 20 is appropriately fixed to the carrier 12by a fitting screw 22, in a state where the ceramic antenna 18 isclamped between the stepped portions 12 b of the carrier 12 and thestepped portions 20 a of the holder 20. In this case, it is desirablethat the ceramic antenna 18 is arranged as close as possible to an edgeof the carrier 12. The holder 20 is provided with a cutout 20 b so as toform an air gap below a lower face of the ceramic antenna 18, in a statewhere this ceramic antenna 18 has been fixed to the carrier 12.Incidentally, the recess 12 a forms an air gap above an upper face ofthe ceramic antenna 18. In the assembled state shown in FIG. 1B, an airlayer having a thickness of t1 exists between the lower face of theceramic antenna 18 and the substrate 10, and an air layer having athickness of t2 exists between the upper face of the ceramic antenna 18and the carrier 12. For instance, a height of the carrier 12 is 10 mm, athickness of the ceramic antenna 18 is 3 mm, t1 is 1 mm, and t2 is 3 mm.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the ceramic antenna 18 is provided with terminalelectrodes 18 a, on its side face thereof, and spring connectors 24 arefixed to these terminal electrodes 18 a by soldering, as shown in FIG.3B. In the assembled state shown in FIGS. 1A to 1C, the ceramic antenna18 is electrically connected to the substrate 10 by way of the springconnectors 24.

With the above configuration, the VSWR less than 3 can be obtained bythe first antenna element 14 in either of the AMPS of 824 to 894 MHzband and the PCS of 1850 to 1990 MHz band, as shown in FIG. 4. Specificexperimental data are shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1 point in graph frequency [MHz] VSWR 41 824 1.9202 42 894 2.096643 1850 2.2788 44 1990 2.8018 45 1575 28.031

As shown in FIG. 5, an excellent VSWR characteristic less than 2 can beobtained by the ceramic antenna 18, in response to a GPS signal of 1575MHz. Specific experimental data are shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 point in graph frequency [MHz] VSWR 51 824 52.777 52 894 49.26153 1850 29.200 54 1990 30.805 55 1575 1.3372

As shown in FIG. 6, it has been confirmed that the isolation between thefirst antenna element 14 and the ceramic antenna 18 is below −20 dB inany frequency band of the AMPS, PCS and GPS, and there is no relativeinterference between them, in practical use. Specific experimental dataare shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3 point in graph frequency [MHz] isolation [dB] 61 824 −20.534 62894 −21.807 63 1850 −25.712 64 1990 −23.138 65 1575 −23.759

FIG. 7A shows the directivity of the first element 14 in a state wherethe antenna is viewed as shown in FIG. 7B. Specifically, the largestgain of 0.85 dBi and an average gain of −2.42 dBi with respect to theAMPS of 849 MHz have been obtained by the first antenna element 14,while the largest gain of 1.18 dBi and an average gain of −2.28 dBi withrespect to the PCS of 1910 MHz have been obtained by the first element14. On the other hand, the largest gain of 2.16 dBi and an average gainof −2.85 dBi with respect to the GPS signal of 1575 MHz have beenobtained by the ceramic antenna 18. It is to be noted that the AMPS andPCS have been measured by signals of linearly polarized waves, and theGPS has been measured by signals of circularly polarized waves.

The air layer formed between the lower face of the ceramic antenna 18and the substrate 10 contributes to lower the Q value of the ceramicantenna 18, thereby enlarging the band width of the antenna. It is alsopossible to appropriately and minutely regulate the Q value, byadequately adjusting the thickness t1 of the air layer, or by providinga dielectric substance layer having a low dielectric constant betweenthe lower face of the ceramic antenna 18 and the substrate 10. Forexample, the holder 20 may be formed of such a dielectric substancewithout forming the cutout 20 b. In this case, since the entirety of thelower face of the ceramic antenna 18 is covered with the holder 20, theceramic antenna 18 will be protected from vibrations or shocks.

Moreover, the air layer formed between the upper face of the ceramicantenna 18 and the lower face of the recess 12 a of the carrier 12contributes to eliminate such phenomenon that the relative interferencemay occur between the first antenna element 14 and the ceramic antenna18 by way of the carrier 12, because the air layer serves as adielectric layer having a low dielectric constant.

The carrier 12 above the upper face of the ceramic antenna 18 may be cutaway, so that the air layer may be formed all the way to the firstantenna element 14, if the antenna element 14 can be reliably supported.

Since the ceramic antenna 18 is electrically connected to the substrate10 by way of the spring connectors 24, vibrations or shocks will beabsorbed by the spring connectors 24 and the electrical connection willnot be broken. Hence, reliability of the antenna will be enhanced.

In this embodiment, the ceramic antenna 18 is clamped between thecarrier 12 and the holder 20. However, the holder 20 may be configuredto independently holding the ceramic antenna, and to be disposed in therecess 12 a of the carrier 12.

The first antenna element 14 may be configured to communicate thesignals of dual band for the mobile phone other than the AMPS/PCT, andthe ceramic antenna 18 may be configured to communicate the signals ofthe Bluetooth and IMT2000.

The electrical connection between the ceramic antenna 18 and thesubstrate 10 may be made by employing an elastically deformable membersuch as a leaf spring made of conductive metal.

1. An antenna, comprising: a substrate; a dielectric carrier, disposedon the substrate and formed with a recess; a first antenna element,provided on at least one face of the carrier and electrically connectedto the substrate; a second antenna element, provided as a ceramicantenna and disposed in the recess; a first dielectric layer, providedbetween the first antenna element and the second antenna element; and asecond dielectric layer, provided between the substrate and the secondantenna element, wherein the recess is formed at a position which issufficiently away from a power supply point to the first antenna elementand a point at which a potential of the first antenna element has amaximum value.
 2. The antenna as set forth in claim 1, wherein at leastone of the first dielectric layer and the second dielectric layer isprovided as an air layer.
 3. The antenna as set forth in claim 1,wherein the second antenna element is electrically connected to thesubstrate by way of a spring connector.
 4. The antenna as set forth inclaim 1, further comprising a dielectric holder disposed between therecess and the substrate so as to clamp the second antenna elementtogether with the carrier.
 5. The antenna as set forth in claim 1,wherein the first antenna element is adapted to communicate signals in afrequency band for mobile phone communications, and the second antennaelement is adapted to receive GPS signals.
 6. The antenna as set forthin claim 1, wherein: the first antenna element is adapted to communicatesignals of either dual frequency band for mobile phone communicationsselected from PDC 800 MHz band and PDC 1.5 GHz band, GSM 900 MHz bandand GSM 1.8 MHz band, and AMPS 800 MHz band and PCS 1.9 GHz band; andthe second antenna element is adapted either to receive GPS signals of1.5 GHz band, to communicate Bluetooth signals of 2.4 GHz band, or tocommunicate IMT2000 signals of 2 GHz band.